Choosing the most appropriate portable generator to match your home and office lifestyle needs intelligent planning to get the best value for you money. Power generators are hardly used. But there are compelling reasons when it can be quite handy.
When will you use it?
Power outages are rare, rarer in some areas than in others. Whether for residential or commercial use, power generators are there precisely to address the need to take over electric power when not available. There’s an emerging mobile lifestyle trend where power generation can be useful when you’re in boondocks, on the road or just in a rural area where no electric power is available. To a large extent, this will determine the size and level of portability of generators. Almost all generators are portable in the sense they can be carried or transported anywhere. Some have roller wheel sets you can attach for better mobility. But they are still heavy. There are new suitcase generators out there that one can carry like a briefcase and may be more suited for your purposes than the traditional portable generators.
How quiet do you want it to be?
Almost without exception, generators vibrate and are noisy. Their engines sound no different from those of small cars or motorbikes. People have known to accept this drawback knowing the situation that calls for them are temporary, lasting a few minutes to an hour. In addition, most generators are installed in a shed outside your homes allowing a good level of noise isolation. But if your need something quieter, there are inverter-based suitcase generators that generate half as much decibels. They are great if your kids want to enjoy their small electronic stuff camping out in your backyard without disturbing the neighbors. But if you need commercial strength generators, “quietness” becomes less of a criterion.
How portable do you need it to be?
Almost all residential generators are portable. The largest ones have optional roller wheel attachments to easily move them from one location to the next. Needless to say, the degree of portability is often proportional to the power they generate. The smaller the power the smaller it’s size. There are already inverter-based suitcase generators that dovetail the power and efficiency of small and medium size conventional generators. They are an alternative if quietness is a major factor.
What appliances need to be powered?
This may actually be the very first consideration when deciding on what size and portability level you want your back-up generator to be. For commercial use, only professional strength generators should do. For residences, you can do some math to determine the total power load requirements of the appliances you’d want powered in cases of power outage. Whether for business or home, the rule is that you won’t need to have everything powered up in case of an emergency. Lights may be halved, so are air-conditioning and heating. Data center servers, for sure, need to be powered up 100%. Client workstations may be diminished too. But it all depends on what you can afford. A small but powerful suitcase generator is every bit a disaster recovery tool for businesses and unless you can’t live without the convenience of 21st century lifestyle at home.